Painting “Buffoons” by Mikhail Shemyakin. Oil, paper. Signed and numbered by the artist. Russia, 1980s.

Mikhail Shemyakin is a Soviet and American artist. The painting presented for sale belongs to a series of works painted in the 1980s under the code name “Carnivals of St. Petersburg.” Then Mikhail Shemyakin was interested in the traditions of Africa, Oceania and Ancient Mexico - and saw an amazing similarity between the masks of the aborigines and the masks of the Comedy Dell'Arte. Another source of inspiration was the traditions of Russian lubok. Works from this series were exhibited at the Galleria del Leone exhibition in Venice and at the international exhibition in Tokyo.